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Karina Huft
Roberta Wolfson
Writing 2
01 June 2016
Exploring Genres by Writing

There are hundreds of genres all around us. Everything that is written can be considered a
genre, from a formal essay to a wedding invitation and everything in between. For this writing
project, we were asked to choose one course topic to write about using two different genres for
two different age groups. I chose to write about first and second order thinking using a childrens
poem and a recipe. Through this writing project, I learned how to adapt a specific topic to
different genres, which will help me become a better writer by enhancing my ability to approach
different kinds of essays and meet their requirements in the future.
The genres one chooses determines a lot about the pieces being produced such as the
format, information, and language needed to write them. Choosing which genres to write in for
this project was a very important first step. I chose two genres that I personally felt very
comfortable writing in. Growing up, my dad would always do a lot of baking so we had a little
box and many books full of different recipes. So I chose to write a recipe because it is a genre I
am very familiar with reading. I chose childrens poetry as my second genre because I did a lot
of poetry as part of spoken word in high school so it was also a genre I was familiar working
with. The formatting for both genres is fairly simple albeit very different. The recipe makes use
of a lot of bullet points, both for the ingredients and directions. It includes other aspects such as
an attractive photo to represent the recipe as well as a little blurb to draw people in. The format
for a childrens poem is very different and much more difficult to fit information into. This genre

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consists of stanzas of four lines each and must follow a rhyming scheme of a-b-c-b. The reason it
is more difficult to fit information is because rather than the almost unlimited capacity of a
bulleted list, stanzas require a certain amount of syllables to make the poem flow. Therefore, less
words and less information will fit. In addition, having to rhyme the words is challenging. So
when writing the recipe, I was able to add in a lot more but it was a little difficult trying to
explain certain ideas in a recipe format. The poem had more information about what the two
kinds of thinking are whereas the recipe had more on how to use them. Finally, writing to the
audiences that corresponded with the individual genres really affected what kind of language I
could use. For the recipe I had to use a lot of vocabulary having to do with cooking or baking as
seen in this example, Whisk together the creativity and free flowing ideas until fluffy enough to
fill 5-6 pages. Obviously one cannot simply whisk up their creativity and ideas and fill up a few
pages, but it works for the genre at hand. On the other hand, for the poem I had to make sure I
only used vocabulary words a child could understand or that I could explain when using words
that are crucial to the topic such as First order thinking. All of these challenges I faced with
formatting, fitting information, and using certain language all resulted from the two genres I
chose.
The writing process for this project was much different than that of a formal essay. First I
had to look into how to write in each genre. I studied the language used in different recipes and
the way the poems flowed within their stanzas. Then I reread the three articles I was planning to
integrate into my genres and wrote down any information or quotes I thought could be helpful.
Elbows article was an obvious choice, but I had a little trouble finding others. Shitty First Drafts
by Lamott turned out to be easy to incorporate because it corresponds with the idea of first order
thinking being the first draft. What is Academic Writing by Irvin was a little more challenging to

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relate to but essentially, he talks about the academic writing process so I blended that in with the
process of using the two kinds of thinking when writing an essay. In the poem I used the authors
as the characters who provide the advice for writing essays as seen in my fourth stanza, Ms.
Lamott once said, / The first draft is a child! / We must let it romp around / and flow and be
wild!. Ms. Lamott is referenced when talking about first order thinking. I quote Irvin later on
his idea of analyzing deeper to get more ideas for the essay. In the recipe I integrated the readings
by using the authors as chefs who have other recipes pertaining to a similar topic that one could
potentially reference. This was a lot easier for me than referencing them in the poem because I
had more room to explain so it felt less like name-dropping. Writing the two pieces was not too
challenging for me at first. After our reader review, it was brought to my attention that I had not
used appropriate language in my poem, using words such as inspection and consciously
asses. I also had not taken the idea of the recipe to heart and failed to incorporate the language
used in recipes such as 1 cup or add to taste. So I went back and rewrote both my genre
pieces to ensure that they followed the genres criteria. Overall, the writing process was a little
challenging and different, but still very enjoyable.
During the writing process for this project, it was a challenge for me at first incorporating
the information and readings but even more so of a challenge was using the right language. I
learned that when picking genres, even if on the surface they appear simple and easy to write, a
lot of thought goes into the process of writing them no matter which one you choose. Writing a
poem for children may seem very simple but there are a lot of factors one needs to consider such
as the rhyming, the vocabulary, the flow of the syllables, and more. Recipes also appear easy to
write but it takes a lot of effort having to explain step by step what may seem simple to the
author but difficult to others. It really makes you think about who exactly is going to be reading

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your work. I feel that this project has really helped me become a better writer. In the future, when
unsure of how to approach an essay, I can think back to the different kinds of genres and the
different requirements to see which one is appropriate for the task at hand. It also helped expand
my vocabulary and adaptability. When rhyming words there are limited options to begin with and
when one adds more restrictions, such as focusing on a younger generation, it is a challenge at
times to find words that fit the criteria and still make sense. So I learned to work around it and
think of multiple possibilities for phrasing certain things which will help me in the future if I am
ever having trouble with a run-on sentence or confusing wording. When writing the recipe, I had
to almost write as if it were a different language. I had to use certain words and say things a
certain way. Where normally I would begin a reference with something like according to... in
this project I had to make it fit the idea of a recipe such as, Review Elbow's recipe on the
balance between the two flavors. It is important to balance the creative thinking and critical
thinking. Even though Elbow clearly did not write a recipe and the two kinds of thinking arent
actually flavors, I still had to write it in the style and using the language that corresponds to a
recipe. I actually learned a lot about recipes in particular during this project, I never realized how
challenging they were to write. This project helped develop writing skills I had not put much
time into developing and in turn will make me a better writer in the future.
Overall this project really did teach me a lot. I learned a lot about genres and the different
requirements they each have. I also learned how to write using different genres. This taught me
how to approach different writing situations and how to adhere to certain restrictions. Learning
how to adapt a specific topic to different genres has helped me become a better writer by
teaching me how to be more adaptable in general in order to correctly approach different kinds of
essays in the future.

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Works Cited

Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching. New York:

Oxford U Press. 1986.

Irvin, L. Lennie. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Library of Congress Cataloging-

in-Publication. 2010.
Lamott, Anne. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins. 2005.